Eyes Wide Open
by TheSweetRevenge
Summary: SasuSaku. He found that it was okay if his first child wouldn't be his, because it was Sakura's, and that was enough for the both of them.
1. prologue: for the days to come

Disclaimer: *Best Yoda voice* Not mine, Naruto is.

This is another "Sasuke returns before everything goes crazy" story, so most of the things after Kishimoto went apeshit and mindscrewed everyone a million times over didn't happen. I will leave what happened before he actually returns to your imaginations.

This will be a very short multichap. (Probably won't exceed ten chapters)

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**prologue**

_for the days to come  
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When Uchiha Sasuke returned to Konoha, many things happened that he didn't expect.

He didn't expect not to be arrested and/or executed on the spot when he walked through the gates, instead being convoyed peacefully (If you could count _Naruto_ and Kakashi that,) to the Hokage tower.

He didn't expect such a lenient sentence. (One year probation for a _missing nin_?)

He didn't expect to be accepted, trusted and befriended so quickly by the comrades he had utterly betrayed.

He didn't expect Sakura to completely ignore him for that full year (though it wasn't that difficult, with her always out on missions.)

He didn't expect Sakura to be the medic on his team on his first high level mission as a Konoha-nin afterwards.

He didn't expect to get badly hurt protecting a civilian child without any rest, and he didn't expect her to heal him with genuine concern in her eyes.

He didn't expect how she finally seemed to forgive him in those moments.

And, in the months following, when she had slowly begun to talk to him again, and really get to know him, and eat ramen at Icharaku when Naruto dragged them there, he didn't expect to fall in love with her.

Most surprising of all, just a little later, he didn't expect her to fall in love with him as well.

For Sasuke, who was so used to being supposedly in complete control of his life, of not being surprised by anything (though the years he was away proved that wasn't quite true), this was all incredibly difficult to adjust to. He was prepared for prison, being an outcast for life, for having missions become his only purpose. He was not at all prepared for the freedom, the friends, and - he would admit - the happiness that he would feel more often than he would ever in his life deserve. When he told Sakura this (during one of those nights when he had nightmares - nightmares of the things he'd never forget seeing and oh god _the things he'd done_, and he would wake up with her beside him, and she would be awake and worried and he would just _hold her_ because he was sure he would break otherwise.) she surprised him by laughing.

"Silly, Sasuke-kun." She had said. He still had an arm loose around her waist, and her breath blew against his chin and neck as she spoke. "Don't beat yourself up over it, because you're right. You _do_ have friends now. Nobody thinks their friends don't deserve to be happy. You can't do anything to change the past, so why not leave it where it should be, behind you, and start living for the future?"

It was one of those poetic, idealistic things that she normally wouldn't have said and he would have scoffed at, but the way she had said it that night, the way she was resting against his chest and the unwavering tone of her voice, made him begin to believe.

One more thing that Uchiha Sasuke never expected when he returned to Konoha was that he would ever, ever begin to forgive himself.

That night, just a little bit, he had.

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Just a short prologue. Could almost be a oneshot actually, since nothing happens at all, but I wanted there to be a bit of explanation as to how Sasuke ended up in Konoha and got together with Sakura, though it's not really much of an explanation at all orz

Next chappie will be up soon. This _will_ actually have a story, though it doesn't seem like it right now. The next chapters will also be mostly in more normal, third person point of view and not this weird confusing thing.

Feedback is appreciated!


	2. chapter 1: carry on

derp.

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**chapter one**

_Carry On_

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Sasuke glared fiercely at the several passerby from his seat on a park bench. What was taking Sakura so long? He fidgeted, slipping his hand into his pocket for the fourteenth time that hour. The small, velvety box he had brought was still there, like it had been the last thirteen times he had checked since he'd gotten it, still feeling like a lump of lead in his pocket.

He had been at the Uchiha compound, which he still visited once in a while to make sure nobody was vandalizing or stealing anything, (while most people weren't stupid enough to try, you could never really be sure.) and had gone into his old house, which he still usually avoided doing as much as he could. It seemed too big and dark and empty, and Sasuke could almost smell the the blood and the smoke from the wood that had burned over thirteen years before. He stepped into the hallway and almost turned back and left, but didn't. He went up, looking into the rooms, seeing what was left of them, though avoiding his older brother's. He was surprised, when he opened one of the drawers in his room, that there were still things inside - pencils and paper and an old gray handkerchief he remembered being his favorite when he was younger. He'd forgotten that _everything_ was still here.

He went to his parents' room after that, heading straight for the large walk-in closet that led to the bathroom. He opened one of the many cabinets, starting at the number of large boxes that were stacked up with labels hurriedly taped on. He scanned them, not really wanting to open anything, until his eyes fixed on one, slightly smaller than the others, that was labeled _Mikoto _in much more careful handwriting. He didn't know what had possessed him to bring it out and sit it gently on the bed, to open it and look through the things inside. It was full of white and red, photo albums and satin dress gloves and a pair of shoes, but it was only when his eyes landed on the small box that held a delicate silver ring, a round cut ruby and a smaller diamond arranged into a vague representation of the Uchiha clan symbol, did he realize what everything in the box _meant_. At that moment, a thousand thoughts seemed to go through his head all at once. The memory of the silver band on his mother's finger, the image of the ring glinting in the sunlight when she washed dishes or when she would stroke his hair before he would leave for school made him realize that this was his _home_. It held the memories he had with his family, and though tainted with the images of their deaths, he would forever consider it that.

Unexpectedly, the thought of _Sakura_ calling it home, of the silver band glinting on _her _finger, of her ruffling a child's hair - _their_ child's hair made it's way into his mind. They had been together for nearly two years and (though he'd be damned if he had to admit it) he loved her. In that time he had simply reveled in feeling the things she made him feel, the way he had once again been able to feel happy, and almost forgotten about everything else. It was only now, staring at the ring on his hand, did he remember _family_, and how he had always planned to have one. It was also then that he realized he could have one now - with one thing he didn't expect - one where he would genuinely love everyone in it.

He slipped the ring into his pocket, carefully replacing the large box in the closet, and walked out of the compound. He had walked straight to the hospital, telling Sakura that he would be waiting at the park to walk her home after her shift. It was only after he'd left the hospital did the gravity of what he was going to do hit him. He was going to ask her to marry him. Uchiha Sasuke was going to _propose_ to Haruno Sakura.

And he had no idea how to do it.

He knew women, Sakura included, were likely some of the most confusing things that walked the earth. They could be laughing one moment and furious the next. No, Sasuke thought, _especially_ Sakura.

That's why Uchiha Sasuke was sitting on a park bench at ten-to-six, glaring at all the people who were passing by because _they were staring - why were they staring at him_ and why the _hell _was Sakura so late? He stood, slipping his hand into his pocket once again before quickly pulling it out. A child glanced at him as he was passing and for some reason Naruto's annoying smug voice (_Teme, you are sooo nervouss!_) kept playing in his head and he glared at the kid because _goddammit he was _not_ nervous_! Nervousness was an emotion idiots like Naruto felt, and he certainly wasn't going to become that over something as simple as _proposing_.

"Sasuke?"

He stood up abruptly, startling Sakura and making her stumble back a little, because Sasuke didn't often move _abruptly_. He could move _fast,_ but not _abruptly_, as that word implied a sense of _shock_.

"What's up, Sasuke-kun?" She asked once she steadied herself.

"Will you..." He started, letting the sentence hang as if he couldn't decide what to say

At this Sakura knew something was up, because Sasuke never _couldn't decide what to say_, at least, when he decided to say something.

"Will you go to Icharakuwithme?"

Yes, something was definitely up.

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I actually halved this chapter, since in ended up being a lot longer than I expected it would be. Torturing Sasuke is too fun. Hee.

Was going to update earlier but my The Legend of Korra obsession is getting in the way of everything. Mako is the hawtest thing ever. Makorra is my OTP kay. Go watch this show.

I'll stop now.

Next chapter will be up soon. Um, seeing as it's only the second half of this and yeah. Hee.

Also, the titles of everything are like random song titles. Lulz. See if you can guess the artists 8D


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